Posted by hiba on October 18, 2002, at 23:39:20
In reply to Re: Are there any meds that will increase sex drive???, posted by JonW on October 16, 2002, at 22:23:19
Hi everyone,
There are some drugs that can increase sexual desire, but the cost is pretty high. Dopaminergics (parlodel, sinemet..etc) can increase desire (theoretically), and this is practically true to some extent. But they have enough side effects, and I have heard, their desired effects will wear off after continuous use. Remember it is difficult to assess normal and abnormal sexual desire. It varies from person to person and situation to situation.
If the loss of libido is due to stress or depression some anxiolytics or antidepressants can solve this.In my experience, I had a poor libido when depression affected me for the first time, and after being on Elavil (amitryptiline) for a couple of weeks, libido came back. This should'nt happen with everyone, because elavil itself can cause a decrease in libido. Besides pdocs seldom prescribe it because of its serious cardiotoxic effects. I was on elavil for almost a couple of years and the dosage was fairly high. (150 mg). But I remember I was much more romantic at that time. And in my case, there was no cardiotoxicity or sexual dysfunction, but in fact it increased my libido by making me happy.
This is a ten year old story. Now there are many more antidepressants in the market with fewer and lesser side effects. But newer ADs are much problematic for sexually active individuals. They have earned a bad reputation for causing more sexual dysfuction than the older ones, besides their psychological dependence potential is very high.It is hard to live a life with poor libido. But since there are no alternatives, We are helpless. Depression itself can cause a complete loss of libido so do the medicines used to treat major depression. There may be exceptions, like the one I described above. I have heard of some newer antidepressant which will not cause sexual dysfunction and wellbutrin, manerix, serzone, remeron are among them. I tried wellbutrin but a return of my depressive symptoms was the result. So if a patient is sensitive to dopaminergics, it is better to stay away from wellbutrin and other dopaminergic drugs.
HIBA
poster:hiba
thread:123936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021012/msgs/124218.html